About 250 million gallons of oil are accidentally spilled into the marine environment every year. Worldwide, the annual crude oil spillage to the ocean is estimated to be about 150 million gallons per year from ship maintenance, about 35 million gallons from transportation accidents, about 15 million gallons from offshore drilling and production, and 60 million gallons from seafloor seepage that has taken place naturally for millions of years.
When oil spills threaten shorelines, dispersants are used to break up the oil into smaller droplets. This keeps the oil in deep water and helps to prevent it from washing ashore where there would be much greater environmental impact. However, oil still remains in the environment and washes ashore with devastating effects on wetlands, beaches and the wild-life thereon. These dispersants do not prevent fouling of substrates, such as birds, animals, and plants, by the spilled oil.
In the Deepwater Horizon incident, more than one million gallons of synthetic dispersants were applied to the Gulf oil spill. These surfactants comprise alkylsulfonate derivatives that are clearly not part of the normal marine ecology. As a consequence, the surfaces to be treated are expected to range from untreated oil/water interfaces to oil droplets emulsified with sulfonate surfactants.